Can the class_exists function in PHP check for the existence of a class without including it?

Yes, the `class_exists` function in PHP can check for the existence of a class without including it. This can be useful when you want to avoid unnecessary autoloading or including of classes in your code. To use `class_exists` without including the class, you can set the second parameter to `false`.

if (class_exists('ClassName', false)) {
    // Class exists, do something
} else {
    // Class does not exist
}